d him to reach the lines.* (* The first detachment of Federals
embarked at Alexandria on March 16, and the army was thereafter
transferred to the Peninsula by successive divisions. On March 25
Johnston was ordered to be ready to move to Richmond. On April 4 he
was ordered to move at once. On that date 50,000 Federals had
landed.) But at the time Jackson fell back to Elk Run Valley, April
17 to 19, fortune seemed inclining to the Federals.

Lincoln had been induced to relax his hold on the army corps which he
had held back at Manassas to protect the capital, and McDowell was
already moving on Fredericksburg, sixty miles north of Richmond. Here
he was to be joined by Shields, bringing his force for the field up
to 40,000 men; and the fall of Yorktown was to be the signal for his
advance on the Confederate capital. Johnston still held the lines,
but he was outnumbered by more than two to one, and the enemy was
disembarking heavy ordnance. It was evident that the end could not be
long delayed, and that in case of retreat every single Confederate
soldier, from the Valley and elsewhere, would have to be brought to
Richmond for the decisive battle. Jackson was thus bound to his
present position, close to the railway, and his orders from Johnston
confined him to a strictly defensive attitude. In case Banks advanced
eastward he was to combine with Ewell, and receive attack in the
passes of the Blue Ridge.

Such cautious strategy, to one so fully alive to the opportunity
offered by McClellan's retention before Yorktown, was by no means
acceptable. When his orders reached him, Jackson was already weaving
plans for the discomfiture of his immediate adversary, and it may be
imagined with what reluctance, although he gave no vent to his
chagrin, he accepted the passive role which had been assigned to him.

No sooner, however, had he reached Elk Run Valley than the telegraph
brought most welcome news. In a moment of unwonted wisdom the
Confederate President had charged General Lee with the control of all
military operations in Virginia, and on April 21 came a letter to
Jackson which foreshadowed the downfall of McClellan and the rout of
the invaders.

April 21.

McDowell's advance from Manassas had already become known to the
Confederates, and Lee had divined what this movement portended. "I
have no doubt," he wrote to Jackson, "that an attempt will be made to
occupy Fredericksburg and use it as a base of operations against
Ric